Buchanan Wants Fifth Round Experience

David Buchanan is hoping to reach the last 16 of the FA Cup for the first time in his playing career when Preston North End host Nottm Forest on Wednesday night.

The Lilywhites face their Championship opponents live on BT Sport in a fourth round replay and Buchs is excited by the tie, following the confidence gained by several impressive performances against teams from the higher echelons of the Football League pyramid so far this season.

“The Forest match is an exciting tie; it is one the lads are looking forward to,” said the North End No.16.

“It is obviously another difficult game, but it is one we want to win.

“The FA Cup is the best competition, I feel, in football and I have never been to the next round, so it is a great chance for me as a player, if we win, to experience it and the next tie looks winnable as well for whoever goes through.

“It is going to be a difficult game and I’m sure the manager will be using his squad, it is a busy month, but all the players are excited and at home we can beat anybody.

“The draw down there gives us confidence that we can get the job done.

“They will come here tomorrow, they will play a strong team, I think Billy Davies will respect us, he said good things about us after the performance down there.

“I don’t know what formation or system we are going to play tomorrow, but whatever team we decide to go for, we will be looking to put the same show on.

“If we can get through tomorrow it is going to be great publicity for the Club.

“The next tie is Sheffield United or Fulham; which for us, is winnable.

“We can go away as we have shown this season against tough opposition that we can get results away from home, but we are just going to look forward to tomorrow, we are going to enjoy the occasion and hopefully we get the right result.

“We want to be in the Championship, we want to be competing against them sides week in, week out.

“It was a fantastic result; don’t take anything away from the result.

“People can see nil-nil, but unless you went to the game you won’t know how it went.

“First half they kept the ball in possession but second half, if anyone looked like going on to win that game, it was going to be us.

“We had some great chances on the counter attack late on in the game.

“Second half we were solid, we was comfortable, but you have seen their performances this year and they are flying high in the Championship, they are scoring plenty of goals, so to go there and keep another cleansheet was fantastic.”

A key element of PNE’s success so far this season has been the resolute defending that Buchanan talks about, defending which has led to 16 cleansheets so far in all competitions this campaign.

And the Northern Irishman is keen to reiterate just how important the art of defending still is in the modern game.

He continued: “It is important to defend from the front; it is things that we work on.

“You watch the game last night, Man City against Chelsea; everyone goes on about Jose Mourinho parking the bus – not at all.

“Defending is part of the game, everybody loves to see attacking football, getting it on the floor and playing the right way, but at the end of the day, it is about winning a football match and defending is important.

“We have got honest players in the group and the strikers work just as hard as anyone on the pitch and it is important that we all muck in together and we all enjoy working hard for each other.”